Everything Will Be Alright
by kissmygizka
Summary: This is what happens right after the summit with the council and after The Inquisitor has lost her arm. How will all that happened affect her relationship with Cullen?


The Inquisitor arrived to her other room. The second that door shut behind her, she slid down to the floor and let out a long, tired sigh. She exhaled not only the air in her lungs, but all of her energy and possibly her soul. She felt like in the past few days she had aged about ten thousand years and a half. On the plus side though, she'd lost about twenty pounds in a matter of seconds, which is always a plus.

She hadn't really had time to think much about it since it happened. It was starting to dawn on her that she didn't have in arm. She hadn't really looked at it, or rather look at the absence of it. There hadn't been any time. Now, as she felt the empty cloth dance at her side hitting her ribcage maybe it was time to… investigate.

She took a deep breath and stood up from the floor, which was different now that she was missing an arm. She walked over to her bed and began untying the knot around her waist. It was damn near impossible. She had asked a made of the palace for help when she was getting ready to go to the summit, now she was alone and the damn thing was tight. After some pulling, grunting, and cursing she finally got it lose, and after finally getting all of those buttons undone (there was probably a million of them), she tugged of her shirt and turned around.

She caught her breath when she look in the mirror. It looked… wrong. She had wrapped it (with the help of the same maid) with some cloth. It had had to go around her chest as well, because there was nothing left of her arm. Not even a stump, or her shoulder.

She tentatively reached for her left side and placed a hand over where shoulder used to be. It felt so wrong.

Her breathing began to shorten. It was all coming at her all at once. Oh, Maker… What was she going to do How was she supposed to work like this? How was she going to tie her shoes, or climb a tree, or cut her meat?! What was she going to tell her family? Her mother would definitely cry hysterically without end. And her brothers- she didn't even want to know what her father would do when he found out. And what about-

There was a gentle knock on the door. "Tahlia?"

She gasped. _Cullen. I can't-_

She didn't want him to see her like this. She felt very nervous, very scared all of a sudden. She began to panic. She could put her shirt back on, but it really wouldn't hide anything. There was clearly something not the same about her. She hadn't thought about how this would affect things with him. Would he be upset? Would he cry or get angry? Would he regret marrying her now that she was broken?

"Tahlia," he said again little louder, she could hear the concern in his voice. "Tahlia, please, can I come in?"

There was no point in putting it off. It's not like he didn't already know. He was at the summit, he saw. She sighed, "Sure. Come in."

He opened the door gently and peaked through, worry covering his entire face. As he entered, he shut the door behind him. She turned away from the mirror and towards him, showing off everything. She said nothing for a while, and neither did he. The room was absorbed by silence. His eyes were focused on the empty space where her arm should be. After what seemed like an eternity, he began to make his way toward her. Tahlia felt something she had only experienced a handful of times in her life, and that was the need to run away. She wanted to leave. She didn't know what was going through his mid, he gave no indication, and if it was bad, she'd rather run.

It was a horrible feeling. Worse than when she got pulled into the middle of the inquisition and didn't know what was going on, or some of her trips to the fade, or even when she began to realize that the anchor was killing her. She had always been so secure about their relationship, even when it was just an attraction, she always knew where they stood and how he felt. When they first started going out, when he was going through his lyrium addiction, and after they defeated Corepheus she was confident she knew not only where they were, but where they were going.

This insecurity she felt now, about him, about her husband, was making her crazy, it terrified her. For the first time since she'd know him, she didn't know what he was thinking.

He finally reached her, he placed a hand on her shoulder and the other on the wound. She held her breath. He ran his hand around it, feeling it with the backs of his fingers, not really sure what he was doing, or what he was looking for. He supposed he was making sure it was really gone, which was stupid, but he didn't know what else to do. "Did it hurt?" he finally asked, breaking the painful silence.

She remembered how to breathe and shrugged her shoulder. "Not really, I guess. It all happened so quickly. The pain leading up to it though was- well. You know."

He nodded slowly, still looking down at the wound, his eyebrows pushed together as they often did when he was thinking. His gaze slowly moved up from her wound and met her eyes. "Are you okay?"

She was frozen there for a second. His eyes, so stunning, so intense, they always took her by surprise not matter how many times she looked at them. She nodded. "I'm okay."

He nodded again. He gaze lowered this time toward her remaining arm. He ran his hand down her shoulder and laced his fingers around hers, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. He then picked her hand up and brought it up to his lips, which had now spread out into a classic Commander Cullen smirk. "Well," he said, she felt his breath on her hand and she got goosebumps. "I suppose you'll have to wear your wedding ring on your right hand from now on."

The words took her by surprise. After the statement sunk in she finally laughed, a lighthearted genuine laugh, the kind when she was truly happy that always made his heart skip when he knew he was the cause of it. "Yes, I suppose so."

He kissed her hand after she kept laughing. She took her hand back from his grasp and wrapped her arm around his neck, he took her waist and they leaned into each other and kissed.

She pulled away to catch her breath, they were both smiling. They were happy. She felt stupid for worrying. It was Cullen, _her_ Cullen. She should have known that he'd stay, no matter what. He loved her and she was mad at herself for doubting it. Insecurity didn't suit her, she never planned on doing it again.

"Thank you," she said to him, still holding him with her one arm.

"For what?" he asked, his voice low and husky, it drove her a little crazy. Like that scar of his. Oh boy.

"For being here," she replied looking into those beautiful brown eyes. "I really needed you to be here."

He smiled down at her. "Of course. You were there when I was at my worst, and you stood by me. I will always do the same for you. No matter what."

She smiled and kissed him again. He pulled away from her and said, "I love you," in a way that couldn't properly be described. There was so much emotion, so much _love_ behind those words. It made her heart swell up twice its size.

"I love you, too."

They leaned into each other again, savoring each other, embracing each other.

 _It'll be okay,_ she thought. _Everything is going to be fine._


End file.
